Freedom's Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness

In 1943, three books appeared that changed American politics forever: Isabel Paterson's The God of the Machine, Rose Wilder Lane's The Discovery of Freedom, and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Together, they laid the groundwork for what became the modern libertarian movement. Even more striking were the women behind these books: Paterson, a brilliant but misanthropic journalist whose weekly column made her one of the nation's most important literary critics; Lane, a restless writer who secretly coauthored the Little House on the Prairie novels with her mother; and Rand, a philosophically inclined Russian immigrant ferociously devoted to heroic individualism. Working against the backdrop of changes in literature and politics, they joined forces to rally the nation to the principles of freedom that had come under attack at home and abroad. Sometimes friends, at other times bitterly estranged, they became known as "the three furies of libertarianism." Now, for the first time, author Timothy Sandefur examines their lives, ideas, and influences in the context of their times. Not a biography, but a story about personalities and ideas--about the literary, political, and cultural influences that shaped the destiny of freedom in America--Freedom's Furies tells the dramatic story of three writers who strove to keep liberty alive in an age of darkness.

Author: Timothy Sandefur
Publisher: Cato Institute
Published: 11/01/2022
Pages: 500
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.90w x 2.00d
ISBN13: 9781952223433
ISBN10: 1952223431
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | 20th Century
- Literary Collections | American | General
- Literary Collections | Women Authors

About the Author
Timothy Sandefur is vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute. He is the author of six books including Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man (2018), The Permission Society (2016), and The Conscience of the Constitution (2014).